CLASSIFICATION: 91/388.
NUMBER OF MISSIONS: 2.
SPACE FLIGHT HOURS: 199 days 15 hours 05min.
PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH: October 29,1952, Kapustin Yar, Vladimir district, Astrachan region, RSFSR (Russia).
NATIONALITY: Russian
EDUCATION:
1969 - finished Rostov secondary school No.3, Yaroslavl region;
1973 - graduated from the Stavropol Air Force Pilots and Navigators school;
1982 - graduated from the Akhtubinsk Test-pilots training center with excellent results;
1993 - had the correspondence course at the Yu. Gagarin Air Force Academy;
1997 - graduated from the National economy academy of the Russian government.
OCCUPATION BEFORE JOINING COSMONAUT CORPS:
from October 30, 1973 – a pilot, from February 1975 – a senior pilot, from February 1977 – a commander of the aviation squad, from January 1980 – second in command of the air squadron of the Air Force fighter regiment, Dombarovsky settlement, Orienburg region, the Privolzhsky Military Command;
from March 1982 – a test-pilot, from 1985 – a senior test-pilot, from October 1986 – second in command of the air squadron on personnel, a senior test-pilot of the Chkalov Air Force Scientific Research Institute, Kirovskoy settlement, Crimea, Odessa Military Command;
May 1993 – a senior test-pilot of the Air Force State Space Scientific Research Institute, Ahtubinsk.
DATE OF JOINING COSMONAUT CORPS (GROUP NUMBER, DATE):
January 15, 1993 – by The Soviet Ministry of Defence order assigned for a position of cosmonaut-tester, a senior test-pilot of the cosmonaut group of the Air Force Space Scientific Research Institute;
September 16, 1997 – by the Air Force commander-in-chief order admitted to the cosmonauts corps of the Yu. Gagarin Cosmonaut State Scientific and Research Institute for Cosmonaut training to a cosmonaut-tester position (group 12).
RATING: - a first-class military pilot (1980); a first-class military test-pilot (1992)
Piloted more 40 types of the aircraft and helicopters. Total flying time more than 3000 hours;
Participated in the tests of 70 aircraft
FREEMAN of Rostov Veliky, Yaroslavl region.
BACK-UP ACTIVITY:
July 28, 1997 – a commander of the backup crew for the ISS Expedition-2 and backup for the Expedition-4 crew commander;
October 20 , 1997 – a commander of the first Russian backup crew to visit ISS (to change the Soyuz TM resupplier vehicle) along with S. Revin
SPACE FLIGHTS PERFORMED:
The first flight - from May 27 to June 6, 1999 – a mission specialist of the Discovery STS-96 mission on the ISS assembling program (2A.1 mission) and became the second Russian cosmonaut to visit the ISS. Had the mission along with K. Rominger, R. Husband, T. Jernigan, E. Ochoa, D. Barry and J. Payette. Flight duration: 9 days 19 hours 13 min. 01 sec.
The second flight – October 1, 2005 - April 9, 2006  – the commander of the Soyuz TMA-7 spacecraft. Launched together with William Surles McArtur (flight engineer-1, commander of the ISS-12, US) and Gregory Hammond Olsen (flight engineer). Performed two EVAs during his flight with total duration of 11 hours 01 min. Flight duration: 189 days 19 hours 52 min.
AWARDS:
Third-Grade Order of Service to Motherland in the Soviet Armed Forces (1978), commemorative medals,
NASA Medal “Space mission” (1999),
Medal “Gold Star” of the Russian Hero (2000).
CURRENT STATUS: 1989 - an Air Force colonel,
2002 – a cosmonaut-tester, commander of the group.

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